1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection head from which a liquid is ejected to conduct recording on a recording medium, a recording apparatus provided with the liquid ejection head, a process for producing the liquid ejection head, a substrate for a liquid ejection head and a process for producing the substrate for the liquid ejection head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet recording apparatus include such a type that a liquid ejection head provided with an energy-generating element for generating energy for ejecting a liquid is installed. In this type of ink jet recording apparatus, it is necessary to use an energy-generating element which is resistant to thermal stress for conducting high-speed recording. Japanese Patent No. 3554148 proposes a TaSiN film deposited by a sputtering method as an energy-generating element which is excellent in thermal responsiveness and has a high sheet resistance.
Such an ink jet recording apparatus as described above has heretofore been used as a consumer device. Specifically, it has been used as an output terminal of an information processing device such as a word processor or a computer. However, the ink jet recording apparatus has been considered to be used as an industrial device in recent years because it has such a feature that a high-definition image is recorded at a high speed.
When the application of the ink jet recording apparatus is an industrial device, the capacity of recording increases compared with the consumer device. As a result, thermal stress applied to an energy-generating element increases. When the thermal stress increases, a resistance change by structural relaxation and oxidation tends to occur, and there is a possibility that the energy-generating element may be disconnected. Therefore, when the application of the ink jet recording apparatus is an industrial device, the energy-generating element is required to have still higher thermal stress resistance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejection head capable of improving the thermal stress resistance of an energy-generating element, a recording apparatus provided with such a liquid ejection head, a process for producing the liquid ejection head, a substrate for a liquid ejection head and a process for producing the substrate for the liquid ejection head.